14-year-old Charged In Man's Death

Orlando police charged a 14-year-old Tuesday with killing a man with a baseball bat last week.

The youth, who had just finished the ninth grade, was charged with second-degree murder in the June 17 death of Ernest Green.

Green, 33, a delicatessen clerk, was found unconscious under Interstate 4 on Amelia Street near Hughey Avenue about 2:45 a.m. June 15, Detectives Mike Wenger and Charlie Ings said. He died at Orlando Regional Medical Center.

Wenger and Ings, who interviewed more than 300 people before arresting the teen-ager about 2 a.m. Tuesday, said they know of no motive for the beating.

''There was no robbery; there was no prior contact between the suspect and the victim that we know of,'' Wenger said. ''We really can't determine what the motive is.''

Police would not release the boy's name, address or school because of his age. The detectives said he has two summer jobs and no arrest record.

Wenger and Ings said Green, 446 N. Trenton St., apparently had been drinking at a bar, although detectives are not sure which one. He was on his way home when the beating occurred, the two said. Green lived about four blocks from the site of the attack.

Wenger and Ings said the 14-year-old had been at Electric Avenue, a teen- age nightclub at Amelia Street and Garland Avenue, which doesn't serve alcohol, with several friends. Green was walking past the club shortly after 2 a.m. when the club closed and several hundred teen-agers came out into the parking lot.

What happened next is unclear, but the detectives said Green apparently argued with several teen-agers and might have gotten into a shoving match with some of them.

''There were a lot of people who heard a lot of things like people arguing and yelling,'' Wenger said. ''Nobody specifically saw Green arguing.''

Green was white and most of the teen-agers in the area were black, but the two detectives said they don't believe that led to the confrontation.

Wenger and Ings said Green continued walking west on Amelia. As he passed under the interstate, a car with several people pulled up, the detectives said. A youth with a baseball bat got out, hit Green in the right temple, then got back in the car and left, they said.

Several cab drivers parked at the Greyhound bus station a block away told police they saw the beating or heard the crack of the bat against Green's head, Wenger and Ings said. The detectives said they later found other teen- agers who identified the youth as the attacker.

Green regained consciousness at the hospital long enough to tell officers he didn't know who hit him or why, Wenger and Ings said.

''He was in the wrong place at the wrong time,'' Wenger said. ''Apparently it was a spur-of-the-moment thing, so the kid could prove something.''

Wenger said charges may be filed against other teens in the car.

The 14-year-old will be held at the Orlando Juvenile Detention Center until the Orange-Osceola state attorney's office decides whether to seek a judge's approval to have the youth tried as an adult.